1 Bound By Oath | Season 2 | Episode 5: Under Color of Law John:​ In 1958, at 5:45 in the morning, Chicago police burst into the home of James and Flossie Monroe and dragged them out of bed at gunpoint. And they scared the hell out James and Flossie’s six children. Houston Stevens:​ The children we made a lot of noise. We screamed. We did a lot of yelling to alert all the neighbors. Cause we didn't know who these were. It was 14 white guys armed with pistols drawn. Jacqui Abrams:​ They pulled out a picture and showed me a picture. “Is this James Monroe?” Of course it is! Yes, that's him, but who are you? Ralph Stevens:​ All I can say is that I tried to block it out like a nightmare because it felt like, and I lived that way for many, many years growing up, like it was a nightmare. It was denial -- my way to suppress and deny how traumatic it was. John:​ James Monroe had not committed the crime he’d been accused of, and the police did not have a warrant to search his home or arrest him. So the family sued, seeking damages from the officers. But rather than suing in state court, James and Flossie did something that Congress had said they could do way back in 1871. They filed suit against the officers in federal court under Section One of the Ku Klux Klan Act. Today Section One is known as Section 1983. And it’s one of the most important and most frequently litigated civil rights laws on the books. But back when the Monroe’s sued, the law had been mostly dormant for nearly a century, and the Supreme Court had never considered whether it could be invoked against a police officer. In the case of M​ onroe v. Pape,​ the Supreme Court decided that it could. On this episode, we’re going 2 to talk to some of the plaintiffs from M​ onroe v. Pape.​ We’ll talk about some old Section 1983 cases from before M​ onroe w​ as decided. And we’re going to talk about a lingering question from the decision that impacts the Supreme Court’s qualified immunity doctrine today. James King:​ When I was being choked, I feared for my life truly. John:​ ​B​ ut first, some breaking news from the Supreme Court. This past Thursday, the Court issued its opinion in Brownback v. King, the case that we featured on Episode 1 of this season. Bystander:​ They’re going to kill this man. John: A​ nd we didn’t win. But we didn’t lose. James King’s case now goes back to the appeals court so it can address an issue it didn’t decide the first time it heard the case. We’ll have more to say about it on a later episode, but the bottom line for now is that we are very confident James will eventually get his day in court. BBO Montage John:​ In 1871, Congress passed Section 1983 to give individuals a way to enforce the guarantees of the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment was meant to be a new birth of freedom, and a Section 1983 lawsuit was and is a mechanism to bring the grand ideas and principles embodied in that Amendment into reality. But after it was passed, the law did not do much work. According to o​ne count,​ it generated only 21 cases in its first 50 years. A little later in this episode, we’re going to talk about a handful of those early Section 1983 cases and what they can tell us about the world before 1961 -- the world before the Supreme Court finally opened the doors of federal courthouses to plaintiffs like the Monroe family. But first, the case that changed everything: M​ onroe v. Pape.​ 3 Houston Stevens:​ My mother was a respectable, hardworking, black woman who came up from Alabama. She escaped from behind the Cotton Curtain when I was 13 months old. John:​ That’s Houston Stevens, the oldest child of Flossie Monroe. Flossie was from Opelika, Alabama. Houston Stevens:​ She was a warm, loving person. She had been orphaned at age six. So she was raised by her grandmother. John:​ Within months of Houston’s birth, his father had to flee Alabama for his life, becoming one of the six million African Americans who joined the Great Migration out of the South. Houston Stevens:​ My father and my mother and my mother's sister went to the theater, went to the movies. And in the Deep South, the blacks sat in the balcony. And the whites sat in the main level. Someone threw a box of popcorn down on the white folks. So the usher came up and accused my father of doing it. And my father said he didn't do that. He said he was here with his wife -- this is the way my mother tells the story -- he said, I'm here with my wife and my sister in law. I'm not throwing pop -- and the usher told him he had to leave and he said he’s not going anywhere cause he paid his money. And the usher grabbed him. And that was the mistake that the usher made. He punched his lights out, knocked him down the stairs. Of course, they call for the sheriff right away. The sheriff comes with this group. And they had him out back behind the jail house. Fortunately, my mother's sister had run home to get my father's father who was an important person around town. He was well-respected. My grandfather ran up there to the sheriff and pleaded for his life. And his sheriff told him he better get him out of here, get him out of here before sundown. So they put him on the Illinois Central going to Chicago. And that's how 4 he got out. That's why I say my folks escaped from behind the Cotton Curtain. That was fascism living in the South. John:​ Chicago, though, had its own problems. In 1958, the Illinois chapter of the ACLU documented thousands of cases ​per year of Chicago police detaining suspects incommunicado for hours or days in violation of state law, which required suspects to be taken promptly before a magistrate. In many cases, and this was nearly impossible to document, police were accused of subjecting arrestees to the third degree -- that is, rough treatment up to and including torture. Anyway, back to the Monroe family. Houston and his mother Flossie followed Houston’s father from Alabama to Chicago. And from there the family grew. Ralph Stevens:​ She was a great mother. She taught all of us a good work ethics, and we all became to some form of fashion entrepreneurs and had our own little businesses and different things. John:​ That’s Ralph Stevens. To help with make ends meet, both he and Houston started working when they were young. So did their sister Jacqui. Jacqui Abrams:​ I started working when I was 12, actually sooner than that because I was babysitting. But my real job was a paper route. I had 72 customers. John:​ After several years, Flossie got remarried to a man named James Monroe. Houston Stevens:​ He was a general contractor. He was a plasterer and carpenter. He did home renovation, building renovation, porch rebuilding. 5 Jacqui Abrams:​ We had an English basement apartment on 14th and Trumbull. John:​ Early one morning in 1958, Chicago police raided the apartment. Houston Stevens:​ This happened on October the 29th. That’s when they invaded the house. Which happened to be my birthday. I turned 17 at that time. I'm the oldest of six children who were in the home. Jacqui Abrams:​ I was 14 years old. Ralph Stevens:​ I was 12 years old at the time so I don't remember a great amount detail other than these guys are screaming and hollering. Houston Stevens:​ They invaded the house -- seven at the front door and seven at the back with guns drawn. They knocked down the doors and came in, came charging in. Jacqui Abrams:​ We heard this loud noise. And when they came in, they came in running. Ralph Stevens:​ I don't remember how many it was, but it was a lot of guys up in there and they were all caucasian and they were mean looking guys with guns and everything. Donald Moore:​ T​he petitioners in this case are James Monroe, his wife Flossie Monroe, and their six children. John:​ That’s the family’s lawyer, Donald Page Moore, arguing at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1960. 6 Donald Moore:​ The respondent, Deputy Chief of Detectives, Frank Pape and 12 other police officers … entered the Monroe home through the front and rear doors. Houston Stevens:​ The children we made a lot of noise. We screamed. We did a lot of yelling to alert all the neighbors. Ralph Stevens:​ We were all screaming and hollering and just going through what kids would do that were traumatized and not understanding what was going on and why. Jacqui Abrams:​ They busted into my mom's bedroom. Now this I saw. They went into my mom's bedroom and got my mom and my stepfather out of bed. Donald Moore:​ Flashlights were shined on the faces of Mr. and Mrs. Monroe. One of the officers ordered James Monroe to get out of bed. A gun was pointed at Mr.